The night was getting darker, Xu Zhong closed the window, and the lights became a little brighter.
The rice paper spread out is blank. The right hand holding the brush is placed on the chin, and the left hand is tapping the thick stack of books on the table, thinking about something.
"Zhizhizhi!" A strange cry sounded, and Xu Zhong looked happy and hurriedly opened the window.
Before him, a white head with a sharp beak had already pushed open the window, stretched out its two front paws and jumped onto the table with a little force, stepping on the rice paper with its feet.
It shook slightly and was covered with snowflakes.
It's a little fox with pure white fur.
"Why are you here so late today?" Xu Zhong shook off the snowflakes on the rice paper, and then wiped the melted snowflakes off the little fox with his wide sleeve robe.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak..." The little fox couldn't speak, but its smart eyes seemed to say that the snow was too heavy, and its entire fox was stuck in the snow, so it was much slower than usual.
"Is it cold?" Xu Zhong asked softly,
The little fox nodded first, then shook his head.
Xu Zhong held it in his arms, and then thought about it: "It should be the Huangdi Neijing."
The little fox is very spiritual, just like a monster in a fantasy novel. Unfortunately, it cannot speak and cannot transform into a beauty.
So much so that when I first encountered it, I thought it was a troublemaker and arrested it.
After all, whenever he reads, the little fox always covers the text with his small paws, and when he writes an article, he uses ink to smear the content of the article.
Cuteness is cuteness, but cuteness is troublesome.
I caught it on the first night, and then ran away inexplicably the next day. Within a few days, it came back on its own.
Until one day, Xu Zhong, who was tired of reading the Four Books and Five Classics, began to read "Zhuangzi".
The fox listened with great interest, and even made a whining sound in response when he read it with interest.
Gradually, Xu Zhong also fell in love with this fox.
So when it comes, he will replace the Four Books and Five Classics with Huang Lao's studies. Fortunately, it always comes at night, stays for an hour or two and then leaves, so it does not delay his study.
The little fox heard that Xu Zhong had read many books, but he only liked the one in "Suwen·Ancient Innocence Theory": "In ancient times, there were real people who held the heaven and the earth, grasped the yin and yang, exhaled the human breath, and guarded the gods independently. Their muscles were like one, so Able to live long in the world, there is no end, this is the way to live.…”
Whenever Xu Zhong reads this, it always responds with a whine, and dances around on him with all four legs, like a doctor performing acupuncture.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak..." The little fox didn't move as usual today. Instead, he tilted his head and stared at Xu Zhong seriously.
"You want to ask, how did the ancient real people exhale and control the changes of yin and yang, so that they can live as long as the world?"
The little fox nodded hurriedly.
"How do I know this?" Xu Zhong held half a book in his hand and patted the little fox gently: "That happened in ancient times, 129,600 years ago."
"Do you know how long one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred years is?"
The little fox shook his head.
"Like you, I don't know how long it was, so like you, I don't know how the ancient real people practiced."
"Squeak..." The little fox seemed a little frustrated.
"However, I remember that there is a saying in "Baopuzi": Those who master the Tao must gain it from within, guard it from the outside, use it as a god, and forget it as a weapon."
"It means that the mysterious way is obtained from the inside and maintained by the outside; those who are good at using the mysterious way can freely express their spirit, while those who forget the mysterious way will only stick to the body."
"I think the ancient real people should have explored themselves inwardly and verified the heaven and earth outwardly..."
"Zhizhizhi..." The little fox shook his head.
"You said I made a mistake?"
The little fox nodded: "Zhizhizhi..."
"You mean, explore yourself outwards and discover the world inwardly?"
The little fox nodded.
"But how is this possible? How can we explore it from the outside? How can heaven and earth be fulfilled within our body?"
The little fox shook his head in frustration, even he didn't know.
"You fox..." Xu Zhong scolded with a smile.
He continued to read to the fox, explaining the meaning of the words as he read.
The little fox was particularly convinced when he heard it, and his pair of bright eyes shone like stars.
It tries hard to remember the meaning of every word.
Gradually, the night drain is about to end, and the cockcrow begins.
At the end of the day's teaching, the little fox left the window again.
A fierce man burrowed into the thick snow and then disappeared.
Xu Zhong smiled: "It's time to go to bed."
Covering himself with a big quilt, Xu Zhong fell into a deep sleep.
His breathing was very steady and he was extremely relaxed.
Every time I breathed in and out, I felt at a loss, as if I had lost my soul, my body felt like a withered body, and my heart felt like ashes.
But the inner life is extremely strong, like an extremely bright fire.
The little fox that had left and returned quietly lay on Xu Zhong's body.
In its eyes, when Xu Zhong was sleeping, he was absorbing the essence of heaven and earth with every breath. His soul was blurred outside the body, embracing the yin and yang of heaven and earth.
The little fox rubbed Xu Zhong's breath, collecting the essence of heaven and earth.
It was originally a wild fox in the mountains. One day while hunting, it fell into a mountain stream and accidentally drank an elixir, thus developing spiritual wisdom.
The elixir was found from a withered skeleton, along with a scroll of scripture.
It gained spiritual wisdom, was ignorant and understood the value of the book, and after restraining itself, came down the mountain to listen to the lecture.
But those scholars who talk a lot about things rarely have three feet of pure energy.
And those great Confucian scholars who have made great achievements in their studies are so awe-inspiring and upright that they are as hard to come close to as the sun.
After wandering around the city with nowhere to stay, he came outside the city and met Xu Zhong, who had failed the provincial examination many times.
Xu Zhong had an aura of awe at that time, but it was not like the bright sun, but like the warm sun. From then on, the little fox focused on Xu Zhong.
In addition to not going well at the beginning, he later captured Xu Zhong with his cuteness, and through some means, he learned the full meaning of the scripture from Xu Zhong's mouth.
As a result, it did not cultivate the Taoism recorded in the scriptures. Instead, Xu Zhong learned the art of breathing, exhaling, absorbing and gathering Qi.
Xu Zhong would not know that when he was sleeping, he was breathing and exhaling very regularly, collecting the essence of heaven and earth.
The little fox also imitated Xu Zhong's breathing and casually rubbed the fresh air he picked up, and managed to practice.
It lay on Xu Zhong's belly, wrapped in a steady stream of energy, and that sense of comfort filled almost every hair.
It seems that it was also because of the complementary cultivation of one person and one fox that Xu Zhong almost understood what the fox said.
I'm afraid that in some time, it will learn how to speak in fox language.
At this time, a cry sounded outside the window.
The little fox looked out the window.
The night fades, the sun rises, and the first ray of light blooms in the sky, driving away the darkness.
Xu Zhong seemed to sense something and took a breath. There was a sound from his abdomen, vaguely like thunder, first from his abdomen, then from his heart, and then down, his internal organs were resounding with the same sound. In an instant, , Dantian suddenly opened, and spiritual energy penetrated the whole body.
The next moment, the soul left the body, and the blurry figure condensed with shining light points was only the size of a palm. It was dazed, as if it was also sleeping.
When his breathing resumed, the thunder suddenly stopped and was replaced by the sound of waves crashing as spiritual energy flowed through his body.
And the little soul soul became no longer small in an instant, opened its thin lips lightly, and took a sharp breath.
The spiritual energy between heaven and earth seemed to be mobilized, flying towards Xu Zhong. At the same time, wisps of purple energy fell from the sky, like clouds, and finally merged into the blood and penetrated the internal organs.
When the sun and moon change, the yin and yang meet, and purple energy is born.
At the beginning, it condenses into clouds, disperses when it encounters the wind, and melts when it encounters water. Therefore, monks often use their skills to collect purple energy for themselves at the moment when the sun and moon change.
Purple energy is no better than spiritual energy in promoting cultivation.
But it can subtly improve people's physique and change their luck.
The little fox stretched out comfortably.
In the past, Xu Zhong was not able to collect so much purple energy, but today he almost collected all the purple energy from the sky a hundred miles above his head, which is really weird.
It puts its ears to Xu Zhong's heart.
"Boom! Boom! Boom..."
It was like the rumble of a war drum, mixed with a hint of fire, which made the little fox's ears buzz and caused a burning sensation.
"He opened the secret of the heart and officially entered the realm of Five Lights!"
The sky has five stars, the earth has five elements, and humans have five internal organs. The three correspond to each other one by one.
The scriptures obtained describe the three realms of human cultivation.
The first level is called the Tao.
In this state, humans and heaven and earth communicate with each other, gathering Qi to build roots, opening the meridians throughout the body, and opening up the Dantian.
When the spiritual energy in the Dantian is abundant, start to water the five internal organs with spiritual energy from the outside in, and establish the foundation of the five elements. This is the first step for the physical body to realize the world by itself.
And after Wu Yao is to guard one realm.
It's a pity that the scriptures are fragmented, and I can only keep one realm and one scripture. I only know that in this realm, I no longer cultivate spiritual energy, but cultivate magic power.
"No wonder the practice caused such a big commotion today."
When Xu Zhong practiced in his dream, he had crossed over to the realm of Taoism and entered the realm of Five Lights, where the Fire Lights were secretly hidden.
The little fox was a little frustrated.
"If I tell Xu Zhong the truth, with his talent, his practice will only be a thousand miles faster."
But on second thought, it seemed unsafe.
"Practice is about keeping the mind focused. He doesn't know what practice is, so he can achieve the goal of having nothing in mind. If I told him, I would miss the opportunity."
If there is dust in your heart, it will be difficult to be unfocused.
The little fox convinced himself and ended the day's practice.
It left the window again and got into the snowdrift.
A row of small footprints extended from the bamboo house where Xu Zhong lived in seclusion into the mountains, passing through the foot of the frozen mountain and crossing the jungle occupied by monkeys. In the mountains far away from human habitation, it ran wildly and finally came to a cliff.
The little fox jumped up, and its body fell at a very fast speed. However, it was resting on a wisp of floating clouds, and was floating among the cliffs with a gust of breeze. Finally, the clouds dissipated, the breeze stopped, and a cave suddenly appeared in front of its eyes.
The little fox was about to enter the cave, but the next moment it seemed as if it had been greatly frightened. The hairs all over its body stood up, and a demonic aura was entrenched in its body. A ball of green air spit out from its mouth, turning into a howling wind.
A hand stretched out from the cave and smashed the evil wind with a gentle pat, and then sucked the little fox into the cave.
